I'm setting up a server for file sharing and web access using Linux (I hope) but I got a rather strange problem with the network interfaces. The hardware is as follows:

The motherboard (mini-itx style) is based at Intel 815 chipset using socket 370 and PC133 memory. A 800 MHz P3 is fitted together with 512 MB RAM and a 60 GB harddisk. The network adapter is a Adaptec ANA-62044, connected to the only PCI-slot avaiable (32bit). That is the only PCI-card in the machine, the rest runs at the motherboard.

Now, time for the problem: the network interface seems to be up and running but I can't get anything to actually work. Pinging something else in the networks gives "Destination host unreachable". DHCP does not work either.

I have tested three versions of Linux: Fedora Core 4, SLES 9 with SP1 and SUSE 10 Professional. All three give me exactly the the same problem. All three versions seems to use the same driver: Starfire.

If I install Micro$oft Windows 2000 Server, everything works fine - the interfaces starts up directly after installation without any need to touch them. I'm out at the network without any problems. So, this rules out the hardware as the source for the problem.

When I was testing any of the SUSE versions, I could see link up/link down messages in var/log/messages when pulling the cable, so the interfaces aren't completly dead. I have tested to install everything to eliminate the risk of leaving out any important package. Is there something additional needed for this type of network cards that does not apply on "traditional" single port NIC's? Or is there some known bug or "feature" that causes this strange problem? I have been searching this forum and Google without any luck.